Alderwood Community Church December 14, 2008

Transcription

1 1 1. Our fascination with Heaven. Alderwood Community Church December 14, 2008 HEAVEN: What is it REALLY going to be like? Part 1- Getting a better understanding of our destiny. John 14:1-6; Revelation 21:1-5 The sense that we will live forever somewhere has shaped every civilization in human history. Australian aborigines pictured Heaven as a distant island beyond the western horizon. The early Finns thought it was an island in the faraway east. Mexicans, Peruvians, and Polynesians believed that they went to the sun or the moon after death. Native Americans believed that in the afterlife their spirits would hunt the spirits of buffalo. The Gilgamesh epic, an ancient Babylonian legend, refers to a resting place of heroes and hints at a tree of life. In the pyramids of Egypt, the embalmed bodies had maps placed beside them as guides to the future world. The Romans believed that the righteous would picnic in the Elysian fields while their horses grazed nearby. Senaca, the Roman philosopher, said, The day thou fearest as the last is the birthday of eternity. Although each description is different, the unifying testimony of the human heart throughout history is belief in life after death. Anthropological evidence suggests that every culture has a God-given, innate sense of the eternal- that this world is not all there is. The Roman catacombs, where the bodies of many martyred Christians were buried, contain tombs with inscriptions such as: In Christ, Alexander is not dead, but lives. One who lives with God. One historian writes, Pictures on the catacomb walls portray Heaven with beautiful landscapes, children playing, and people feasting at banquets. In AD 125, a Greek names Aristides wrote to a friend about Christianity, explaining why this new religion was so successful: If any righteous man among the Christians passes from this world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God, and they escort his body with songs and thanksgiving as if he were setting out from one place to another. These early Christian perspectives were rooted in the Scriptures, where the apostle Paul writes, To me, to live is Christ and to die is gain I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far. Philippians 1:21, 23 He also wrote, As long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord We would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:6, 8 Heaven! The very word is synonymous with beauty, comfort, peace, satisfaction, and contentment. The adjectival form is often used to describe something wonderful, as in The view on top of Hurricane Ridge is heavenly. But heaven is far more than an adjective or an attitude. It is a place, a real place, where God dwells, where Jesus is at his right side, where the saints of the past currently dwell and where all believers will go after they die.

2 2 Read Text: John 14:1-6 (pg. 1067) When Jesus told his disciples, In my Father s house are many rooms I am going to prepare a place for you, he deliberately chose common, physical terms (house, rooms, place) to describe where he was going and what he was preparing for us. He wanted to give his disciples (and us) something tangible to look forward to- an actual place where they (and we) would go to be with him. This place is not an ethereal real realm of disembodied spirits, because human beings are not suited for such a realm. A place is by nature physical, just as human beings are by nature physical. (We are also spiritual.) What we are suited for- what we ve been specifically designed for- is a place like the one God made for us. Earth. From our study in the Scriptures over the next several weeks, we will learn an exciting, yet often neglected truth- that God never gave up on his original plan for human beings to dwell on Earth. In fact, the climax of history will be the creation of new heavens and a New Earth, a resurrected universe inhabited by resurrected people living with the resurrected Jesus. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new! Then he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. Revelation 21: Misconceptions about Heaven. Randy Alcorn, in his book on Heaven tells about how a fellow pastor confessed to him, Whenever I think about Heaven, it makes me depressed. I d rather just cease to exist when I die. Why? Randy asked. I can t stand the thought of that endless tedium. To float around in the clouds with nothing to do but strum a harp it s all so terribly boring. Heaven doesn t sound much better than Hell. I d rather be annihilated than spend eternity in a place like that. Where did this Bible-believing, seminary-educated pastor get such a view of Heaven? Certainly not from Scripture, where Paul said to depart and be with Christ was far better than staying on a sin-cursed earth (Phil. 1:23). While that confession was both honest and shocking, there are many Christians who claim to believe the Bible is God s Word but they share a lot of the same misconceptions about Heaven. Gary Larson captured a common misperception of Heaven in one of his Far Side cartoons. In it a man with angel wings and a halo sits on a cloud, doing nothing, with no one nearby. He has the expression of someone marooned on a desert island with absolutely nothing to do. A caption shows his inner thoughts: Wish I d brought a magazine. (p.451 Far Side, Complete Collection)

3 3 One Christian author wrote, Nearly every Christian I have spoken with has some idea that eternity is an unending church service We have settled on an image of the never-ending singalong in the sky, one great hymn after another, forever, and ever, amen. And our hearts sinks. Forever and ever? That s it? That s the good news? And then we sigh and feel guilty that we are not more spiritual. We lose heart, and we turn once more to the present to find what life we can. Nineteenth-century British theologian J. C. Ryle said, I pity the man who never thinks about Heaven. We could also say, I pity the man who never thinks accurately about Heaven. It s inaccurate thinking, I believe, that causes us to choose to think so little about Heaven. 3. The theological neglect of Heaven. John Calvin, the great expositor, never wrote a commentary on Revelation and never dealt with the eternal state at any length. But surprisingly few theologians in the centuries since Calvin have attempted to fill in the gaps. Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote an in-depth two-volume set titled The Nature and Destiny of Man, but remarkably had nothing to say about Heaven. William Shedd s three-volume Dogmatic Theology contains 87 pages on eternal punishment, but only 2 on Heaven. Martin Lloyd-Jones, in his 900 page theology, Great Doctrines of the Bible, devotes less than 2 pages to the eternal state and the New Earth. In The Eclipse of Heaven, theology professor A.J. Conyers writes, Even to one without religious commitment and theological convictions, it should be an unsettling thought that this world is attempting to chart its way through some of the most perilous waters in history, having now decided to ignore what was for nearly 2,000 years its fixed point of reference- its North Star. The certainly of judgment, the longing for heaven, the dread of Hell;: these are not prominent considerations in our modern discourse about the important matters in life. But they once were. An overwhelming majority of Americans continue to believe that there is life after death and that heaven and hell exist, according to a Barna Research Group poll. But what people actually believe about Heaven and Hell varies widely. A Barna spokesman said, They re cutting and pasting religious views from a variety of different sources television, movies, conversations with their friends. The result is a highly subjective theology of the afterlife, disconnected from the biblical doctrine of Heaven. 4. Our study about Heaven. Understanding the Present Heaven -Did you realize that there is a difference between the Present Heaven (where Christians go when they die) and the ultimate, Eternal Heaven (where God will dwell with His people on the New Earth)? (I will explain the difference to you.)

4 4 What will the Eternal Heaven be like? -Will the Old Earth be destroyed or renewed? -Why is Earth s redemption essential to God s plan? -What will the New Earth be like? Like paradise? -What is the New Jerusalem? What will we be like in Heaven? -What will our lives be like? -What will our bodies be like? -What will our relationship with God be like? -What will our relationships be like with other people? -What will we do in Heaven? -Will we really rule or reign with Christ in Heaven? -Will we really receive rewards in Heaven? 5. Heaven as our motivation in this life. A. The pleasures of Heaven. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:11 The Scripture repeatedly makes clear that heaven is a realm of unsurpassed joy, unfading glory, unlimited delights and unending pleasures. Nothing about it could possibly be boring or humdrum. It will be a perfect existence. We will have unbroken fellowship with all heaven s inhabitants. (Adam, Moses, Abraham, Joseph, David, Peter, Paul, and all of our believing friends and relatives who have gone on before us.) Life there will be without sorrows, cares, tears, fears or pain: And God will wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold I will make all things new. Revelation 21:4-5 And get this, Murphy s law will finally be nullified. In heaven, whatever might go wrong, can t! The best of our spiritual experiences here are only small samples of heaven. The sweetest fellowship with other believers, the most incredible joys that we experience, the most transcendent moments of worship where we are so touched that we literally feel the presence of the Lord and our hearts are warmed, are simply a taste of what is to come. B. Imagining Heaven. We cannot anticipate or desire what we cannot imagine. That s why God has given us glimpses of Heaven in the Bible- to fire up our imagination and kindle a desire for Heaven in our hearts. Discussions about Heaven tend to be either hyperimaginative or utterly unimaginative. Bible believers have tended to be unimaginative. What we need is a biblically inspired imagination.

5 5 We should ask God s help to remove the blinders of our preconceived ideas about Heaven so we can understand Scripture. We should pray as the Psalmist in Psalm 119:18 Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. Think with me for a moment. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:11 (1) How do we experience the pleasures that God has given us in this life to enjoy? Through our senses. Think of the most beautiful sights you have experienced in this life. Heaven is described as a place of breath-taking beauty. It will surpass anything in this life. Senses, emotions, relationships imagine it. (2) James reminds us that in this life, Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights James 1:17 Yet Paul tells us about God s goodness and grace in the life to come, And God raised us up and seated us in with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:6-7 (3) Imagine what our relationships will be like without sin. C. Making Heaven our preoccupation. Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Colossians 3:1-2 (1) This radically affects the way we live our life. The more we make heaven our preoccupation, the more our lives become radically transformed. People, possessions, career, time, pain and pleasure all have meaning when viewed through the lens of heaven. The reality of eternity was the central motivation of the disciples during the early days of the church. The resurrection of Christ proved to them that heaven was real. Since there was life after death, nothing on this side could distract them. For them the other side was worth living for- and dying for if necessary. Nothing this passing world offered could deter them from living for eternity. Heaven was the primary reference point of their existence. Making heaven our primary point of reference transforms us as well. What does it mean to make heaven our ultimate point of reference? Points of reference rivet our attention and alter our behavior. Let me give you some examples: When a college student prepares for a major grade-point-threatening test, hew views all of life

6 6 through the grid of that impending exam. If he neglects that point of reference- if he fails to prepare- he feels guilt and fear. If he gives proper attention to that point of reference, he will begin to do things he s never done before. He will say no to other less-important activities such as pick-up basketball and instead spend a long night at the library, sifting through his research notes and resources as though he were a scholar. We all have points of reference. They dictate who we are, what we dream about, where we go and what we do when we get there. Among these other points of reference may be: (a) an upcoming marriage (b) a vacation (c) a promotion (d) a baby soon to be born (e) a new home (f) a new car (g) retirement When we make heaven our point of reference, we will know it because everything on this side becomes radically rearranged. (2) This changes the way we view other people. As human beings, we have a terminal disease called mortality. The current death rate is 100 percent. Unless Christ returns soon, we re all going to die. We don t like to think about death; yet, worldwide, 3 people die every second, 180 every minute, and nearly 11,000 every hour. If the Bible is right about what happens to us after death, it means that more than 250,000 people every day go either to Heaven or Hell. If anyone s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:15 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lambs book of life. Revelation 21:27 Invitation: Is your name written in the Lambs book of life? If it isn t now, it can be. In Jesus Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. Ephesians 1:7-8 Homework: 1. Read Revelation this week. 2. Meditate on Colossians 3:1-2 and ask yourself, how should these verses affect my priorities and my perspectives on time, money and relationships. Bibliography: Heaven by Randy Alcorn The Glory of Heaven by John MacArthur The Biblical Doctrine of Heaven by Wilbur Smith Eternity: Reclaiming A Passion For What Endures by Joseph Stowell